South Brisbane pool care empire best franchise in Australia

Despite scooping up the franchising industry’s top award at the 2013 National Excellence in Franchising Awards at the Gold Coast on Tuesday night, Paul and Caroline Attard were back at their Mt Gravatt PoolWerx pool and spa care store the next day getting their hands dirty with the busy start to the swimming season.

Multi-Unit Franchisees of the Year share their business journey Caroline and Paul Attard chat with John O’Brien, PoolWerx CEO about their award win.

It’s this hands-on management style that has seen the Attards grow from a single ‘man-in-a-van’ business in 2005 to a $2.1 million empire with two retail stores and six vans servicing hundreds of clients across South Brisbane. Now they are Australia’s best multi-unit franchise across all brands.

“I was operations director for an events and experiential marketing company and Caroline was running her own child care business from home,” Paul said.

“However, we wanted to be in control of our own destiny and build a strong future for our children.

“We started with a van and no customers and after fine tuning our service delivery and establishing a regular client base we invested in our first retail store in 2006. We’ve since followed PoolWerx’s career pathway, growing through multiple vans and retail stores.”

The Attard’s now employ 11 team members, working across Mt Gravatt, Balmoral, Carindale and Rochedale.

“It’s been a fantastic business journey for us and being recognised as the top franchise in Australia after eight years of hard work is truly humbling.

“We’ve always attributed our success to delivering exceptional service and the ongoing support from our clients. We’ve developed a strong mobile business and significant commercial partnerships requiring expert pool care all year round.”

Mr Attard said the business had gone through significant changes over the past 12 months.

“We introduced a brand new point of sale system to improve the customer experience and streamline our marketing efforts, implemented cutting edge water testing technology and new IT systems, and gave our Mt Gravatt store a makeover.”

PoolWerx CEO John O’Brien said he was extremely proud of the Attards.

“Paul and Caroline’s experience evolving from a single van business into one of our most successful multi-unit franchises is invaluable in providing support and helping the network grow across Australia,” he said.

“Through their commitment and dedication to our franchise model they’ve demonstrated the true growth potential in the PoolWerx brand and they’re very deserving of the title of the best multi-unit franchise in Australia’s franchising industry.”

It is the second year running PoolWerx took out the multi-unit category after West Brisbane franchisees Tony and Michelle Graham took out the top gong last year.